Chapter 32
Allegra
I ROSE SLOWLY, buttoning my jacket as I stepped toward the witness stand, and smiled. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Ellington. How are you today?”
“Fine. Thank you.” Nina Ellington lifted her chin high.
“So, you testified earlier that you purchased a property in the Bahamas six years ago, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
I nodded. “In the signed asset listing you provided, you indicated that the value of that property is approximately four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And to the best of your knowledge, that is what the property is worth?”
She shifted in her seat. “Yes.”
“And you purchased that property for what price?”
“I believe it was three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.”
I picked up a paper, glancing down for effect only since I already knew what it said. “Three hundred, twenty-five thousand and five hundred, to be exact.”
Mrs. Ellington rolled her eyes. “I stand corrected.”
“And how did you come to the value of the property?”
“I had an appraisal done.”
I lifted another packet of papers. “This one? Signed by Marcus Pratt?”
“It’s in your hand,” she said. “Maybe you can tell me.”
I smiled. Her arrogance was going to make this so much more fun. “Actually,” I said. “I don’t need to look. It was indeed signed by Marcus Pratt.”
She shook her head. “Great. Thanks for confirming.”
“Mrs. Ellington, how did you come to hire Mr. Pratt?”
“How did I come to hire him?”
I nodded. “Yes, that’s the question.”
In my experience, it was common for people who weren’t being truthful on the stand to repeat the question—buy some time to think about where I might be heading and if the answer they might give could trip them up later.
Essentially, it was like playing liar’s chess, trying to figure out each other’s next move before they made it.
“I…I don’t really remember. I think I got his name from a neighbor.”
“A neighbor?”
I walked back to counsel’s table and lifted a stapled packet of canceled checks.
Turning to the galley, I saw that Cass had come in and winked at her before returning my attention to the witness stand and clearing my throat.
“I’m going to change subjects for a bit, but I’ll come back to Marcus Pratt shortly.
” Nina Ellington’s brows furrowed, and I continued.
“You did some construction on the property in the Bahamas, is that correct?”
“Yes, I fixed it up so I could flip it.”
“And who did the work?”
“The work?”
I smiled. She was starting to squirm now. “Yes, the construction work at the property. What was the name of the contractor?”
“Umm…I don’t remember.”
I walked back to the stand and extended a piece of paper. “Your Honor, this is a copy of a canceled check. I’d like to show it to Mrs. Ellington to help refresh her memory. The bank statements and checks were included as part of discovery requests.”
The judge gestured for me to give it to her. “Fine, get on with it.”
I gave Mrs. Ellington a moment to look at the check, then asked, “Can you tell me the name of the contractor now, Mrs. Ellington?”
“Coral Bay Construction, Inc.”
“Great. Thank you. Would you mind turning the check over, please? I’d like you to read the name of the person who endorsed it. The bank in the Bahamas requires the name of the person who deposits the check to sign the back.”
Mrs. Ellington’s lips pursed together to form a straight line, and she very slowly turned over the paper. It was clear she wasn’t excited about doing so. She read the name on the back, and her eyes widened.
I gave her a minute to answer my question, but she stayed silent. “What is the name of the person who endorsed it?”
She swallowed. “Michael Pratt.”
“Huh,” I said and looked over at the jury. “Same last name as the appraiser, Marcus Pratt. Do you happen to know if they’re related?”
“I…I’m not sure.”
“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I can tell you they are. They’re actually brothers. Isn’t that interesting?”
She clenched her teeth. “Not really.”
“I think it is.” I shrugged. “I’m going to pause now and go back to my earlier question about how you came to use Marcus Pratt as your appraiser. Might it have been a recommendation from your builder?”
“I don’t remember.”
I walked back to counsel’s table one last time. “Your Honor, I’d like to move to admit an application that Mrs. Ellington made for a bank loan a few months ago. This would be for the purchase of the co-op she recently acquired in the West Village.”
Opposing counsel thumbed through his papers and stood. “I object, Your Honor. We have not been given this evidence during pretrial exchange.”
I nodded. “Counsel is correct, Your Honor. But we are not offering the application as evidence of the merits. We’re introducing it solely to impeach the witness’s testimony, as it directly contradicts the statements made moments ago on the stand.”
The judge waved his hand. “Let me see what we’re talking about here.”
I handed the paper to the judge, and he sighed. “I’ll allow it. For impeachment purposes only.”
“Thank you, Your Honor.”
Mrs. Ellington glowered at her attorney, who could do nothing but sit back down while I took the paper from the judge and walked it over to the witness box.
“Can you please tell me what you wrote on line twelve of the mortgage application? This is the line that lists your assets. Please read me the number written right next to the words Bahamas House.”
She looked down and then back up with a mask on her face. “One million, five hundred thousand dollars.”
“And you signed that application, correct?”
“Yes.”
I strolled back and picked up the asset list, so I had one in each hand. “Which valuation is correct, Mrs. Ellington? Is it one-point-five million or four hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”
“I…I must’ve made a typo on the mortgage application.”
“Oh.” I nodded. “A typo.” I looked over at the judge. “Your Honor, I have one more item I’d like to admit today. It’s also for impeachment purposes. The evidence also goes to the credibility of the witness’s statements today.”
He again motioned for me to pass it to him. I watched as he slipped an eight-by-ten glossy from the envelope. His brows jumped. “I’ll allow it.”
“Thank you.” Taking the envelope back, I walked it over to Mrs. Ellington and removed the photo of her and a man having sex on the back deck of her massive house in the Bahamas. “Mrs. Ellington, can you please tell me the name of the man you’re with in this photo?”
She shut her eyes and took a big, deep breath before answering. “Marcus Pratt.”
***
“Oh my God. That was so much fun today!” I sat at the bar next to Cassie and raised a glass of wine. “I’m so glad you were able to come see Nina Ellington finally get hers. That woman was such a bitch to you when she came in for her deposition.”
Cassie nodded. “She was. Sorry I had to run back to the office before it ended. But I think I got to see the good parts.” She sipped her wine. “I bet Mr. Ellington was happy you came back to handle his case. He couldn’t stand Sierra.”
“He was. Before he left, he mentioned that his buddy, Garrett Lange, needed an attorney, and I would be hearing from him.”
“Garrett Lange, the actor?”
I nodded and sipped my wine.
“Oh my God, Allegra. That’s amazing. That kind of high-profile client could mean a lot of referrals.”
I frowned and sighed. “I know.”
“You are going to come back, right? I know you like the Italian stallion, but this is huge.”
“I think I more than like Matteo, Cass.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re in love with him?”
I nodded. “I didn’t even notice it was happening at first. There was just this strong pull toward him. And then, all of a sudden, he was my gravity.”
Cass put her hand over her heart. “I’m so happy for you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. He lives four thousand miles away.”
“Would he consider moving here?”
I shrugged. “He said he would. But he has an amazing life in Italy. He has a vineyard that took him years to cultivate, a family that often spends Sunday afternoons drinking wine and talking over each other in the most beautiful way—not to mention a hundred handmade wool hats.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Handmade hats?”
“It’s a long story.” I smiled sadly. “But it wouldn’t be fair of me to ask him to move. Tuscany is his home in a way that’s more than just where he lives. It’s a beautiful life.”
“I saw the look on your face when you walked out of that courtroom today, Allegra. You love your work. I looked into what it would take for you to get your license in Italy after we talked last time. It’s not simple like moving to another state.
You could practice there by filling out some paperwork, but you’d only be able to advise people on U.S.
law, and since most people who live in Italy are probably married there, I don’t think that would work for your area of practice.
Otherwise, you’d have to take an exam in Italian that covers Italian law with things like civil, criminal, con law—it basically sounded like another bar exam, so you’d have to not only teach yourself all of that, but you’d need to be fluent enough in Italian to take the test.”
My shoulders slumped. “I don’t know what to do.”
“What about splitting your time? Work four days here and spend three there. Maybe you can alternate who travels?”
“That would work if it were a two-hour flight, but it’s nine hours to Rome, then a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Montepulciano.
Then you add getting to the airport a few hours early and waiting for your bags.
It’s sixteen hours each way, if you’re lucky and nothing is delayed.
So we’d be traveling two days to see each other for one.
Not to mention, opening a new practice would take a lot of work and mean long hours.
And what happens down the road if we were to have kids?
Do I not see my children a week at a time? ”
Cassie stared at me. “Wow. You really have fallen for this guy. I’ve never once heard you thinking about what might happen in the future with a guy, much less kids.”